Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Fashion and Textiles at the V & A

The fashion gallery is probably the most popular gallery at the V&A. It has a collection of clothing from the last 300 years from famous designers and not so famous ones also. Some of the clothing is made from fabulous hand embroidered fabrics and some are quilted and "sculptured" pieces. This time they also have a gallery of costumes from plays in the city.

So lets get started:

This piece is a quilted outfit that was worn under the suites of armour. We thought upcycling was new - these outfits were made from old quilted bedcovers. The quilting is quite intricate and it was all done by hand.

There are many embroidered textiles in the collection some are sashes worn by knights and some are hand embroidered yardage made into clothing.

The ladies jacket is hand embroidered with a silver thread couched in a meandering pattern on the surface of the fabric it also has silver spangles (17th century version of a sequin) stitched on it.

This is a man's waist coat. Even men got there clothing hand embroidered.

This gown is called the Origami gown. It was designed in 2009 by the Korean designer Lie Sang-Bong and is a reinterpretation of a traditional Korean wrapping cloth. It is made of organza and we counted 17 layers of fabric. It is stunning!! Sorry about the photo's it was in a glass case and the reflection caused some problems with the photos.

The new gallery with the costumes was fun. It had an interactive area where kids and adults could dress up in costumes take photos - there were a few families enjoying getting dressed while we were there. For me the intricate costumes were the most interesting part. Unfortunately I forgot to get down what plays these costumes were from but I am sure you will like seeing them anyway.

Designed by Bruno Sandini in 1977 - "fairy queen" from the opera Oilanthe.

This is a rhino costume it has two people in it with bicycle chains to make the tail and the head move - up close it has the texture and colour of a real rhino (not that I have been that close to a real rhino lately).

This one was called "full" English breakfast. I don't know what show it was from but it was worn by Dame Edna and it is hilarious.
Time for bed - I will post some more tomorrow.